Student-oriented apartments a magnet for burglars

The District on Kernan looked the part of the prototypical student apartment complex, and everything seemed above board to 20-year-old Timothy "T.J." Pemberton and his father, Stanley.

They flew to Jacksonville from Texas in May in preparation for T.J.'s move back to Florida. He had grown up in Fort Lauderdale before his father uprooted the family for a job. T.J. said he wanted to return to Florida and use up some of his parents' prepaid college money.

"The beach was his big motivation, though," Stanley recalled. "He missed the ocean. You just don't get that in Texas."

They inspected 14 - maybe 15 - complexes before settling on The District, which caters primarily to college students.

The model room looked clean and spacious. It was located close enough to Florida State College at Jacksonville's South Campus that T.J. could walk to class.They were sold.

"Nothing stood out as bad about this place," Stanley said. "There was no inclination that this was a bad environment and we should feel nervous about letting him live there."One call changed that opinion.

"They told me my son had been murdered," he said. "I didn't get it. It didn't make any sense. This wasn't supposed to happen at a place like that."

T.J. was killed Oct. 5 in what police called an impromptu robbery at The District, which is in the 3600 block of South Kernan Boulevard near the University of North Florida. This year's slaying was the first on the property since 2005, when the complex was under different management and called Melrose Student Suites.

A Times-Union analysis of a decade of Sheriff's Office calls for service to the complex's address shows that although homicide investigators were infrequent visitors, members of the Burglary Unit had become steady house guests for apartment residents. The number of burglary calls to The District is comparable to Eureka Garden and Roosevelt Gardens, two privately owned apartment complexes subsidized by taxpayers through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Both are seen as high-crime complexes and have also experienced a homicide this year.

Burglary calls generated by the complex have increased for the past decade, and the rate is exponentially higher than other complexes adjacent to the UNF and Jacksonville University campuses that also advertise to students. There have been more burglary calls this year to the complex through the end of October than in any of the past 10 years.

The number of calls for assaults at The District is at its highest since 2004, according to Sheriff's Office data.

Choosing a markThe complex houses about 1,000 residents, and at least 90 percent are students, an apartment representative said. UNF spokesman Sharon Ashton said the school doesn't market the complex to students, but sales representatives sometimes come on campus to speak with students. The complex also advertises with the school newspaper, "The Spinnaker," and with the athletics department.

A rise in burglaries spells bad news for student-dominated housing complexes, said Mark Bonistall, co-founder of Peace Outside Campus, a New York-based nonprofit organization that evaluates the security offerings of off-campus properties nationwide.

Bonistall said college students are popular marks for seasoned criminals, and a consistent uptick in burglaries shows that thieves might have started setting up camp and targeting students. That accessibility could also present a toehold to violent crime, he said.

"They see students as low-hanging fruit," Bonistall said. "They often have this feeling of invincibility, even though they may be in unfamiliar surroundings and away from home for the first time. Plus they're away from their rooms in class a good portion of the day, so that gives burglars the opportunity to walk in and snatch a laptop or plasma TV."

In T.J's case, authorities said three men were walking after hours through the apartment complex looking for someone to rob when they found the 20-year-old, who offered to sell them drugs, police said. His father declined to comment on whether his son used or sold drugs.

His assailants forced him inside his apartment and shot him. Jacksonville residents Christopher D. Jenkins and Marvin V. Jenkins, both 18, and Lamar D. Hayes, 20, were charged with homicide and armed robbery.

Increased precautions?Bonistall said video cameras, extensive lighting and round-the-clock security should be standard at every complex catering to students.

District spokesman Chip Schell said the property doesn't have video cameras, but there are lights on each building and in the parking lot. There is also a professional security guard who checks IDs and operates a traffic gate at the main entrance when the sun goes down, Schell said. Another guard patrols the grounds in a car.

He said the complex hasn't boosted security since the October homicide but has contacted the Sheriff's Office about organizing safety lectures for tenants.

"We're trying to get out there and have as many eyes as possible scanning the property," Schell said. "The problem is that you can't guarantee 100 percent security to everyone, but you can encourage residents to report anything suspicious."

Several residents who spoke to the Times-Union but declined to be named because they didn't want to be identified to management said lighting on buildings is hit-or-miss. Some have floodlights on the outside; others only have weaker dome lights in the stairwells. Other residents said all it takes is a friend inside the gates to get past the security booth, and it's rare to see the other security guard leave the car and patrol on foot.

Deal said his office receives more calls for service from The District than any other apartment complex or subdivision near UNF. He attributed that to the complex's dense student population."I'd chalk most of them up to noise complaints," Deal said. "I haven't been able to get a good read on the place yet because they've changed management up so much. But we're actively working to make sure we have no more shooting deaths there."

He declined to comment about any crime trends his officers have encountered at The District, but said the burglary rates in surrounding properties haven't increased as they have at The District.

He said patrols swing through the complex two or three times a day at random intervals to keep any criminals on their toes. Officers noticed during one patrol that some of the trees on the property were obscuring parking lot lighting, so they requested that maintenance crews tidy up the foliage.

"They were very quick about taking care of that," he said.

He didn't know of any other suggestions made to The District's management.Schell said The District's next step is to enroll in the Crime Free Multi-Housing Program, which certifies housing complexes and allows managers to evict tenants if they or any of their guests are arrested on the property for drug-related or violent crimes. He wouldn't discuss any further security plans.

"We're doing everything in our power to prevent anything like this from happening again," he said. "I don't think we have a burglary problem, but we'll take a look at the stats and see if there's anything we can do to boost the level of comfort for residents."

Stanley Pemberton doesn't take too much solace in that guarantee. He said if he knew about the previous homicide or checked the calls for service at the complex, he wouldn't have let T.J. sign the lease.

"It still remains a shock to us," he said. "We both looked at each other and said, 'Hey, this looks like a nice place.' I wish I could take that back."

matt.coleman@jacksonville.com,(904) 359-4654

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.

Stay Connected

Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted.
The Florida Times-Union ~ 1 Riverside Ave., Jacksonville, FL 32202 ~ Privacy Policy ~ Terms Of Service